Samsung warns of steep decline in profits in Q3 F2014 guidance

The world's largest phone-maker has issued its guidance for the third quarter of the 2014 fiscal year and warns that there may be a steep drop in profits from a year ago and from the previous quarter. With the guidance, this would be the fourth consecutive quarter that Samsung's profits are slumping. Operating profit could drop by as much as 60 percent.

Samsung says that it expects to make 4.1 trillion won, or $3.8 billion, in operating profit for the quarter ended September 30, roughly a 60 percent decline from the same quarter a year ago of 10.2 trillion. Similarly, sales were also down, coming in at 47 trillion won, or 20 percent less than a year ago.

Samsung says that though smartphone sales were slightly up, profits were hurt by increased marketing costs and lower prices.

The full earnings report, due later this month, will give us more information about Samsung's financial performance.